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From the Archive: Kathryn Joosten on Cancer Battle

Published
11:51 AM PDT, June 3, 2012

Two-time Emmy winner Kathryn Joosten passed away on Friday, and now we're paying tribute to the actress by flashing back to her 2009 interview with ET, in which the Desperate Housewives star spoke about her cancer battle.

Joosten, who at the time was suffering her second bout with cancer, told ET, "I plan on being the Ryan White of lung cancer and I say that because lung cancer today is where AIDS was in the '80s. The public's perception was you were naughty, you did it to yourself, you're going to die anyhow, so what the hell do we care?"

"I want them to know that the public has to stop treating it as though it were some invisible stepchild that can be ignored," Joosten explained. "You've got to start stepping forward. Smoking is going down, down, down. You don't see people smoking in public places anymore, hardly at all. Lung cancer is going up, up, up and we're not paying any attention."

At the time of the interview, Joosten had recently undergone surgery to treat the cancer and was already back to work on "Desperate Housewives." Watch the video to see the poignant conversation.